Intraoperative sonography: a valuable diagnostic tool in the surgeon's hand for the operation of non-palpable breast lesions

Background: Breast Cancer is increasingly being diagnosed at early non-palpable stages. The prognostic important primary tumor-resection with adequate clear margins often poses a challenge for the surgeon. Besides preoperative wire localisation of breast lesions intraoperative imaging may be an essential support. Primary objective of our study was to investigate feasibility of intraoperative sonography in the hand of the surgeon, second to show the rate of primary R0-resections. Material and methods: Between july 2001 and october 2006 567 patients with operable breast cancer were treated at General Hospital Feld…